Subject: Goulash! Re: stone-age recipes

From: [email-masked] (Sean Mallory)
Date: 17 Jun 94 23:51:00

[note - i will eventually get to a recipie, just not neccesarily stone-age.]

Jeff - the closest i have have seen to what you may be wanting does not
bother with worries about mixtures and such.

Try cooking for groups of people with unrelated allergies.

This generally has led to yeast-free vegan cooking. Meats occasionally
getting in, but at the most as a condiment (and only if they are high
quality, and unexposed to too many *-cides). It is much harder to do this
with meats included though. Note that the yeast-free part also excludes aged
foods.

Another effect of this is that allergies generally become exacerbated with
repeated foods - thus the concept of 'staple' gets all fudged, and a wide
variety of foods based on different substances gets used.

Your comment about mixtures does also sneak back in - think of the number of
foods that contain unneccessary casien, vinegar, wheat, malt, soy protien,
and such. And the number of people who are allergic to them.

On your original quest, there seems to be some disagreement among the anthro
and primate people i know as to whether humans are more likely to be
frugivores or more general omnivores. I ppersonally prefer to be omniverous,
'cause the animals that are _really_ successful seem to generally be
omnivores.

Anywho - one of the most widely eatable foods that i've found that's actually
a filling meal. This is based on the descriptions of early goulash that i've
heard, but it is clearly from after the new world crops were brought over.

Dice 2 large potatoes and start frying in 'your favorite oil'. Dice half a
large onion, add this late enough that it will finish cooking about the same
time as the potatoes (takes practice - varies with height of flame). Smash a
sufficient number of garlic cloves, then dice fine (i usually use about 5 or
6) and add to dish. At this point about a teaspoon or half a tsp of ground
caraway should be added, along with about a gill to a half cup of sweet
paprika (i found that at one of the local health stores, i can get this for
US$4.25/lb  - though at other stores of the same name it runs up to 9.50/lb
and isn't as good at the higher price). Also add from a teasp to a tlbsp. of
savory and pepper to taste.
  This is the base of the dish, and it can be elaborated as ingredients are
available. Some of my favorite additions are a tomato (add right at end),
maize, cabbage (in small pieces), brussles sprouts (admittedly not as populat
with others). At other times i've also added hummos (sometimes i make more at
a time than i know quite what to do with) or on occasion ground beef (not
more than about 4oz for the other quantites described - and frozen just has a
weird flavor in this, use fresh if at all possible)
  Sometimes right near the end it'll start sticking to the pan - add water as
needed to redisolve the sticking part, as it has a great deal of flavor, and
the extra moisture will improve the texture since sticking indicates
over-dry.

This is somewhat different than the 'stew' interpretation of goulash,
somewhat closer to the 'wot' in Ethiopian cooking. This is based on the early
goulashes being cooked, then dried for use as 'instant' food for the
cattlemen of the Hungarian plain as it could easily be rehydrated in camp
with little more effort than boiling water. (Plus was a whole lot lighter to
carry than many other foods.)

Sean Mallory   ([email-masked])

That's not spelled wrong - society just hasn't caught up with my spelling
yet! (All the opinions are mine, but they may be yours soon.... heh heh...